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Rating: 
Summary: INCREDIBLE BOOK! The one we've all been waiting for.
Review: Don't know what the *ekstasis16* is talking about--GEAR SECRETS is an fantastic book of guitar-gear information. If you've ever wanted to know how your favorite players get their tone, this is the book to get you going. There are lots of great gear diagrams and interiews. EVERYBODY who plays electric guitar should check this book out. And the CD really COOKS, too.
Rating:
Summary: Prown and Sharken Great TEAM !!!!!
Review: Gear secrets is an interesting book full of the type of thing you would have read in the old Guitar shop magazine. The diagrams are easy to follow and the explanation of the signal chains are often done in the own words of the artist.
There is a good mix of players from vaious musical genres and enough info to satisfy players of all types. Even if you are not interested in certain guitar players it IS interesting to read about how they set up their gear.
Rating:
Summary: Prown and Sharken Great TEAM !!!!!
Review: Gear secrets is an interesting book full of the type of thing you would have read in the old Guitar shop magazine. The diagrams are easy to follow and the explanation of the signal chains are often done in the own words of the artist.
There is a good mix of players from vaious musical genres and enough info to satisfy players of all types. Even if you are not interested in certain guitar players it IS interesting to read about how they set up their gear.
Rating:
Summary: Son of Guitar Shop's Revenge!!
Review: Having read the book I'm pleased to say that I found it both interesting, informative, and fun. I like the no nonsense get down to it approach to the different guitar players and there gear. The rundown of the various guitars, amps, strings, and pedals, pedals, pedals used by these "Guitar Legends" (most of them are... but a few really don't deserve that title) gives a great insight in to the many sounds and tones you can generate from a electric guitar. More so Pete and Lisa go in to the playing styles of these players to give you ideas on how to go about adding some of there "Mojo" in to your style. Perhaps the most important thing I got out of the book was to reafirm what I have felt for many years now. YOUR SOUND IS IN YOUR HANDS...not in some amp, speaker, or little pretty colored box from who knows where. Great Players sound great on anything but, by seeing the choices they have made in guitars and other gear goes a long way into developing your own choices for your own sound and style. I think players of all levels would enjoy reading this book because it covers sounds from the dawn of rock & roll up to the present. The enclosed CD by Pete Brown has many good examples of the different sounds and playing styles of the many guitarists in the book. It is not a big over produced demo. It sounds like it was recorded at home using gear most of us have or can afford. The cool thing is Mr. Brown has the guitar chops to pull off close approxamations of the various "Guitar Legends" in the book. They are not perfect but they are well done nontheless. See what I mean good players sound good on anything. I'll be stealing some of those licks in no time. Where can I get my hands on Volume 2.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so secret information here....
Review: I bought this book hoping to gain a little insight on the gear setups of Vai, Satriani, and Petrucci (Petrucci isn't included). But there is nothing new here that you can't learn from going to their websites and looking up their gear list. I'm attempting to construct my own rack setup right now, so I was really hoping for detailed diagrams of signal flow, like specific inputs and outputs on each piece of gear, or at least a note of which was a MIDI connection and which was audio. But, no, none of that here. The included CD isnt very revealing either, as the examples arent even recorded with the artist's chosen guitars. I can understand not using specific gear because it gets expensive real fast, but at least use their guitar, it's one of the biggest tone factors. The musicians included are your standard line up of rock guitarists as well as some who have such a simple setup, such as Tom Delonge of Blink 182, its not even worth including. The best part of this book is the foreword by Vai (cuz I'm such a Vai freak I guess), but I'm gonna recommend you save your money for something else.
Rating:
Summary: Not so secret information here....
Review: I bought this book hoping to gain a little insight on the gear setups of Vai, Satriani, and Petrucci (Petrucci isn't included). But there is nothing new here that you can't learn from going to their websites and looking up their gear list. I'm attempting to construct my own rack setup right now, so I was really hoping for detailed diagrams of signal flow, like specific inputs and outputs on each piece of gear, or at least a note of which was a MIDI connection and which was audio. But, no, none of that here. The included CD isnt very revealing either, as the examples arent even recorded with the artist's chosen guitars. I can understand not using specific gear because it gets expensive real fast, but at least use their guitar, it's one of the biggest tone factors. The musicians included are your standard line up of rock guitarists as well as some who have such a simple setup, such as Tom Delonge of Blink 182, its not even worth including. The best part of this book is the foreword by Vai (cuz I'm such a Vai freak I guess), but I'm gonna recommend you save your money for something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Guitar-Tone Tips...Very Useful!
Review: I like this book a lot--there a great tips for guitarists on how to improve your tone. I learned that, if you want to sound like a top guitarist, it's not about what gear you own--it's about how you set your amp and effects up, and how you play your instrument. (Just because you buy an Eddie Van Halen guitar, that doesn't mean you're going to sound like Van Halen!) The CD that comes with the book also demonstrates how to sound like just about anybody--ERIC CLAPTON, VAN HALEN, ANGUS YOUNG, METALLICA and more. Overall, this book has really changed the way I approach my rig and my guitar playing. Cool.
Rating: 
Summary: Fake CD completely betrays the spirit of the title
Review: The book is mediocre (confusing and unhelpful in comprehending and reproducing Eddie Van Halen's signal path), and the accompanying CD deserves zero stars. Please help me find language harsh enough, if possible, to describe this CD. After gathering articles about genuine star guitar rigs, one editor bothered pouring his time and energy into making a so-called sample CD -- using an amp simulator! I just can't *stand* the sound of *any* tracks on that CD: fake, fake, incomplete, half-baked Tone at best. This is the worst amp tone sample CD I've ever heard. Lose-your-lunch awful. It's positively *evil* and harmful, misleading and misguiding young guitarists to make them think that this wretched non-range of non-Tone is even worth putting down on tape. It's mediocre *at best*; well suited for -- nothing. I wouldn't let my dog listen to it. Why would anyone ever choose to listen to this wretched fake sound when they could easily put on a genuine, rich sounding record instead? If some kid wants to record such a fake sound, that's their business, but it is downright immoral to use the opposite of Tone, to create a CD that is marketed as showcasing the authentic, *real* amp sounds, including actual power tubes and bona fide speaker distortion, which are explained to some extent within the book. The *only* thing the CD demonstrates is negative: why your tone is doomed to sound like a total uninspired amateur and poseur if you use an amp simulator rather than actual power tubes and hard-pushed guitar speaker. No content of the book can make up for this sin and crime against the guitar gods. The CD proves that simulators and emulators are the equipment of the mortals; actual cranked amps are essential to the qualifications of the guitar gods. This sample CD could be the greatest boon to amp tone, by scaring people away from amp simulators, putting some fear of the devil into them, jolting some good sense into them to run out and get instead an actual miked-amp setup, such as a tube power amp and a guitar speaker, possibly multimiked in an isolation booth.
Rating:
Summary: Fake CD completely betrays the spirit of the title
Review: The book is mediocre (confusing and unhelpful in comprehending and reproducing Eddie Van Halen's signal path), and the accompanying CD deserves zero stars. Please help me find language harsh enough, if possible, to describe this CD. After gathering articles about genuine star guitar rigs, one editor bothered pouring his time and energy into making a so-called sample CD -- using an amp simulator! I just can't *stand* the sound of *any* tracks on that CD: fake, fake, incomplete, half-baked Tone at best. This is the worst amp tone sample CD I've ever heard. Lose-your-lunch awful. It's positively *evil* and harmful, misleading and misguiding young guitarists to make them think that this wretched non-range of non-Tone is even worth putting down on tape. It's mediocre *at best*; well suited for -- nothing. I wouldn't let my dog listen to it. Why would anyone ever choose to listen to this wretched fake sound when they could easily put on a genuine, rich sounding record instead? If some kid wants to record such a fake sound, that's their business, but it is downright immoral to use the opposite of Tone, to create a CD that is marketed as showcasing the authentic, *real* amp sounds, including actual power tubes and bona fide speaker distortion, which are explained to some extent within the book. The *only* thing the CD demonstrates is negative: why your tone is doomed to sound like a total uninspired amateur and poseur if you use an amp simulator rather than actual power tubes and hard-pushed guitar speaker. No content of the book can make up for this sin and crime against the guitar gods. The CD proves that simulators and emulators are the equipment of the mortals; actual cranked amps are essential to the qualifications of the guitar gods. This sample CD could be the greatest boon to amp tone, by scaring people away from amp simulators, putting some fear of the devil into them, jolting some good sense into them to run out and get instead an actual miked-amp setup, such as a tube power amp and a guitar speaker, possibly multimiked in an isolation booth.
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